The conference series “Women and Politics in Asia” started 2003 in Sweden, at Halmstad University, and was continued 2004 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and 2005 in Islamabad, Paki-stan. In 2009, the fourth international conference of its kind will be convened by the In-stitute of Social Sciences at the University of Hildesheim, Germany.

Building upon “Women and Politics in Asia 2005: Discovering the Gender Face of Politics”, Women and Politics in Asia: A Springboard for Democracy? aims to reflect upon the links between

• democracy and the feminisation of the halls of political power
• gender and (power) politics
• gender relations and gender ideologies and their impact on specific socio-political systems, modes of interaction / participation and citizenship discourses
• gendered forms of political participation and agency

within Greater Asia in an integrated comparative perspective. This region of the world is interesting for students of democracy for a number of reasons: Many Asian countries have acceded to different forms of democratic government in the past few years while other countries belong to the group of fragile states, struggling with instable or autocratic governments, heterogeneous gender and identity politics and/or with internally contested democratisation/liberalisation and state-building projects resulting in distinctive gendered outcomes. The vast majority boast extremely diverse populations, which generates enormous challenges for the establishment of balanced political representation and par-ticipation; many countries have adopted affirmative action measures to increase the rep-resentation of women and ethnic groups in their parliaments; many countries have elected women to the highest positions of executive and legislative power; finally, many countries are confronted with national and international initiatives for gender main-streaming, women machineries and progressive gender policy regimes as part of a good governance concept of ODA donor countries or lobbying from (trans)national women’s movements and non-governmental organizations throughout the region.

This conference is soliciting papers for the following four themes (and parallel sessions):

• Political Actors and Institutions
• Public Policy
• Political Theory and Citizenship Discourses
• Feminist Movements

For individual paper proposals, please send 1) the name and institutional location of the presenter; 2) the curriculum vitae (2 pages max.) of the presenter; 3) the title of the presentation; 4) a one page description of your proposal with reference where appropri-ate. Deadline: February, 28, 2009 to wpa_2009#yahoo.com.
For convening a panel, please send 1) the name and institutional location of the con-vener; 2) a list of presenters who agreed to participate in the panel; 3) the curriculum vitae (2 pages max.) of the convener as well as presenters; 4) the title of the panel and the different presentations; 5) a one page description of your proposal with reference where appropriate. Deadline: February, 28, 2009 to wpa_2009#yahoo.com.

The selection of proposals will be conducted by the international organisation committee of WPA 2009 until March, 31, 2009; an intra-regional balance will be considered.

All conference papers have to be submitted until August, 31, 2009, and will be made available online. Selected conference publications will be published in the ZIF series Fo-cus Gender, Münster et.al.: LIT Verlag (to be confirmed).

Conference Organizers
Professor Dr. Claudia Derichs
Director of the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Hildesheim
derichs#uni-hildesheim.de

Dr. Andrea Fleschenberg dos Ramos Pinéu
Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Hildesheim
andrea.fleschenberg#uni-hildesheim.de

Contact Address
University of Hildesheim
Institute of Social Sciences
Marienburger Platz 22
D-31141 Hildesheim Germany
Email: wpa_2009#yahoo.com

The conference is organized in cooperation with the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation and with the support of the University of Hildesheim, ZIF – Centre for Interdis-ciplinary Women and Gender Studies at the University of Hildesheim and the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony.

aus: FEMALE-L@JKU.AT